Hopefully they have someone thinking through the pricing on these things. Like Dan, I've seen them back at the full $80 price @ Target, but I nabbed mine from Amazon with no tax/free shipping for $30. There has to be some kind of happy medium there.

Hasbro was, at one point, a little more liberal in saying what did ok and what didn't, and as I recall in 2008 the Falcon and AT-TE both did well... The CW was at its height, it sort of makes sense. Then 2009 rolled around and the Turbo Tank came out, and I seem to recall Hasbro saying it didn't do as well as hoped and the whole, "We'll see if we do a big ship at Toy Fair for next year", schtick... Then the AT-AT was like they were trying to make a statement... Then this year things were scaled back to a lower price point and that seemed to be a point they were trying to make... Maybe the AT-AT was only so-so...

Now the shuttle. Yeah I saw them clearance at WM and sell ok. My Target never put them on clearance at all so they've always been the full price here, and I'd say they sold so poorly on Amazon.com, even clearanced, that they really just said to hell with it and unloaded it.

That brings us to now... I think if TPM3D's toy line falters before summer is up, and that the MTT ***** the proverbial bed, then I think we'll maybe see a scaled down AOTC3D's release. I could see a "Big" Gunship, as it wouldn't take a lot to make that ship more special by upsizing it a little to make it to-scale... I could likewise see Hasbro's team say, "Well it sells great on the secondary market now, so why mess with perfection?" and just crank out more of the old mold at a higher price.

I'll say it now though, I have a bit of faith that a new Gunship mold will be done.

I think a lot is riding on the TPM3D's toy line's performance this Summer though.

I think a lot of the ideas collectors wish for aren't too likely in toy form these days, but you never know too. A year ago I'd probably have not believed they'd make an MTT, and now they are. To me it is a mistake... Ride the Maul bone and make a bigger Infiltrator since you know Maul is your cash cow with this film. Not much else is, but Maul will make you money. Like Vader's TIE sells, now was the chance to make an Infiltrator that kids would've had to have had this holiday.

Like many, Maul is one of my favorite parts of TPM, so I've been thinking about picking up the Sith Infiltrator now that it is being re-released (or get the previous version cheaper). I was looking through some pics online of it (I passed on it last time), and although it might be a good toy, it really is ridiculously sized. I can see why they went the route of the MTT (and it is a never before done vehicle as well), but I wouldn't have minded seeing a re-done and upscaled Sith Infiltrator. Anyways, I'm not upset with the choice, I think the MTT is cool too, but it will be interesting to see how it does.

It is interesting/scary how much may be riding on this TPM 3D lineup of stuff. Banking so much on a movie whose previous toyline and promotions really hurt some companies last time around is sort of risky. I'm still not entirely convinced how much kids are going to buy into this stuff, and if so, the movie will likely be out of theaters in a few weeks and forgotten by May (particularly since it isn't a "new" movie). Add to that the quality of the largely pushed "Movie Heroes" line, and it may spell trouble. It will be interesting to see how the year shakes out and things shape up going into AOTC 3D next year. Some of our stores (WM in particular) had stuff out early, and while the vintage seems to have sold out for the most part, I don't know that Movie Heroes has even been touched yet. I hope the movie does well and everything, but we'll see how the toy line does as well. I bet Hasbro sort of wishes Lucasfilm had started with A New Hope . Understandable why they went this way with the numerical order and everything, but it may have been a little safer bet.

From what I've seen, Hasbro isn't overdoing the TPM merchandise though... we might see more new stuff with Toy Fair, but I am not expecting to see much more TPM stuff.

Vintage - We get a wave of TPM figures in the TVC line... okay, nothing wrong with that. We are way overdue for new TPM figures, and they've been selling like crazy at Wal-Mart, the TRU stores that put them out are selling fast with their Buy 2 Get 1 Sale, and I assume they'll do okay at Target. And if anything, this is a much stronger "Wave 1" than the ESB wave that launched the new vintage line - we get a lot more "new" stuff in this initial wave.

Movie Heroes - This is going to suffer from the bad quality of figures... the first wave only has three "TPM Specific" figures... but again, the quality of most of the figures is the problem. Wave 2 looks a bit better, and does focus on TPM, but there's some "new" stuff here so I don't think it's that big of a disaster - however those should have been in Wave 1.

Clone Wars - Well, this is Clone Wars. Doesn't look like this is a focus for Hasbro this year, at least not in terms of making "new" figures, looks like they think they need to focus that on vintage, which in the long run is probably a smart decision.

The weakest link, I think is the Wave 1 vehicles... those podracers could spell bad news for that line... the Wave 1 deluxes are an absolute joke too... what's new about them? Nothing. And I think the MTT is a great idea, and better than Maul's ship because Maul's ship never does anything in TPM except land in the desert. It's a cool design, but at least the MTT saw action in the film, and has cross over appeal for the rest of the prequels and the Clone Wars - plus some people will army build it for dioramas. I can't see that happening with a $100 Sith Infiltrator, which would probably be better served as a $50-$60 toy.

Anyways, I think any downfalls we see with Star Wars from what we've seen revealed so far has more to do with repacking older figures at higher prices than special attention being given to TPM... the devotion to that film actually isn't overwhelming.

That's true, I guess I'm thinking of it as a "TPM" push, but it is more the "Movie Heroes" push that is more accurate I guess. I don't think there is any problem with the all TPM Vintage Collection wave either, and it is a very strong wave overall. Plus, like you mentioned, we haven't gotten much from this movie in a long time. I'm sort of guessing to that aside from those "Discover the Force" re-releases later this fall (Aurra Sing, etc.), we won't see any other TPM in the Vintage line this year.

The main culprit is the Movie Heroes, and the combination of repacking pretty old stuff for higher prices. A lot of that stuff could sit, so it will be interesting to see what happens there. If it isn't shipped like crazy, it should be fine....we'll see. The only place I had seen stuff early really so far here was WM, and I haven't gone shopping since the "release date" of today, but I don't think anything had sold so far from that line locally. The Vintage stuff flew off the pegs though, it seems. The problem with Movie Heroes too is that so much of it (but not quite all) has been offered so much lately, so even a lot of kids already have it. I guess it all depends how much TPM captures (or re-captures) kids imaginations, or how much of the first wave will have to get off the pegs before we see more. I'll be interested to see at Toy Fair what the future waves for that line will be made up of, if it will still have a TPM focus or if it will cover the whole Saga (which I think it is supposed to). If we get the entire Saga's characters included, if they put stuff in there like the crazy action featurey Lukes and Hans that we got in the Blue/Gold Saga line, etc., that could spell trouble too.

One thing I noticed from some of the info wrap ups from SDCC is that Hasbro said there won't be a "big" vehicle for 2013 - and the future of that line depends on how the MTT does. I was a little surprised that we wouldn't at least see a re-release of the TRU Slave I or something, but maybe they mean just no "new" big vehicles or something. If it is up to the MTT's success to see if we get any other big vehicles in the future, I'm not sure when we'll see something new. It at least seems like things like the Sail Barge and/or Death Star are on their radar though. I could see some sort of DS release, about the time ANH 3D hits theaters.

Agreed, plus it's not that huge actually, but I take that (and it's kind of loose so it could go either direction) to mean no NEW BMF, but in our interview they did just say no biggie item next year... Leaves it sort of open.

I think ESB Slave-I will happen at some point. The thing was tooled with that in mind even. It'll happen. Just don't count on a new biggie next year. Maybe the year after but I'm not so sure how that MTT is gonna do.